[IMPORTANT] Hamas launches foot assault against settlements.

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With any luck.

I have pointed out the parallels with Vietnam before and indeed having grown up during the Vietnam era I do have a sense of deja vu. There are important differences. Unlike Palestine the Vietnamese communists were three thousand miles away. The Vietcong had no long term goal on the mainland of the United States and most of the pro war Americans did not want to permanently occupy Vietnam and kick the Vietnamese out. Religion was not an important factor.
The powers that be in The United States gave up when it military espirit decor and discipline of disintegrated. While there is dissension in the Israeli military it is not at American 1970s levels and anti zionism is not a factor. At Israeli protests Israeli flags are raised not burned. Even with the draft the American forces were not a citizens army and by the end of the war consisted of largely minorities and other groups most Americans could not relate to.

Prediction:
An Israel loss in this particular war will be Hamas still in power and eventually lobbying rockets into Israel and conducting occasional terrorist attacks, the Israelis retaliating and here we go again. The larger conflict will be resolved when the either the Palestinian or Jewish national project is given up upon. As mentioned Palestinians again and again have proven against overwhelming odds it is not going to be them. The Jewish one is in question and the expectation that the Jews will give up and go back to Poland or whatever is central to resistance strategy.

Worst case for Israel. We are in a post Netenyahu, post Trump world. The anti zionist zoomers are in power in America and sanctioning Israel. Traditionally Israel eventually gives in to the Americans. Netenyahu is a very Westernized person. The future PM many not be and declare that letting that Americans dictate our policy goes against the core values of zionism. It becomes obvious that one way or another the zionists have to be forced out. Sanctions are increased, and maybe eventually a blockade. Whether the west can unite enough to go this far is questionable but lets assume Israel has so pissed off the rest of the world that they go through with it. I can see westernized Israelis giving up but die hard zionists no.

Eventually the zionists will not be able to hold off the rest of the world. At best the end and the aftermath will be a clusterf**k at worst the Israeli Jews will get the Holocaust 2.0 they always feared.

If the argument is that the Palestinians getting an independent state (which they probably will) means that Israel lost the war, I'm not sure that it is, despite Netanyahu not wanting an independent Palestinian state, because the war was against Hamas. It depends on what you think think their war aims actually were.

Well Israelis are not going anywhere. Most of the population in Israel have been living there their whole lives and "armed resistance" has proven futile. The best deal the Palestinians are ever going to get as far as a Palestinian state is concerned is a two-state solution, otherwise Israel will eventually annex all of the West Bank and Gaza and you'll have a one-state solution only for Israel. Those are the only two options.

"Israel agrees to the American proposal for the return of the hostages, which is based on the Witkoff framework," the statement read. "This proposal was recently conveyed to Hamas through the mediators, but so far it continues to cling to its refusal."

The statement confirmed that senior-level negotiators will return to Israel, while a working team will remain in Doha.

The Jerusalem Post<reported that the remaining team in Doha is staying to show that Israel is still willing to make efforts to reach a deal.

However, Israeli officials have repeatedly stated that no progress has been made in the negotiations and that there is no indication that Hamas is shifting its position.

Hostage talks are at a deadlock, Qatari PM says
Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said that the talks had reached a deadlock, the Media Line reported.

“One side seeks a comprehensive agreement for Gaza, while the other insists on a partial deal. We have not been able to bridge the gap,” Al-Thani said, citing irreconcilable differences. He blamed Israel’s “irresponsible and aggressive behavior” for undermining negotiations, referencing the Israeli military’s expanded campaign in Gaza following the release of hostage Edan Alexander.
Al-Thani added that Qatar remained committed to negotiations between the two parties.

“We are determined, alongside our partners, to stop the war, secure the release of hostages and end the suffering of Gaza’s civilians,” he said.

In a statement, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum said that it did not believe the government had any plans to bring home the hostages.

“No spin will hide the simple truth – the Israeli government has no real plan to bring back the last hostage," it said. "The majority of the public supports the return of all the hostages, even at the cost of halting the fighting.

"Only the return of all of them at once will allow for a process of rehabilitation and recovery for the country and the army.Hamas will not be defeated without bringing back the last hostage.
"Until then, there will be no victory – not even the semblance of one."

I wonder how long that apartheid state will last, in the face of boycotts, sanctions and demographic pressure. At some point those Israelis might have two options, become Palestinian or GTFO.

Based on the Israeli's behaviour and what they've said, they won't be happy until the Palestinians are completely dispossessed and driven from Palestine. Remember, it wasn't the Palestinians who initially coined from the river to the sea, Likud used the phrase between the sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.

So, what you're saying is that you are considering a failure or loss for Israel based on something that is not in their officially stated war goals. A loss for Israel based on those stated goals is only if Hamas remains in power and is still armed. Yes, there are some people in the Israeli cabinet that would like Gaza to be completely emptied of it's population but I think we both agree that that is not going to happen.

Tel Aviv's Kiryat Shaul Cemetery was filled with hundreds, maybe thousands of visitors one afternoon last month. Six soldiers carried the coffin, mourners placed wreathes on the grave and soldiers fired a gun salute. It seemed like just another of the hundreds of military funerals during the war that will soon become Israel's longest.

But something was different. This funeral wasn't announced to the media and the soldier's name wasn't reported. The reason: The reservist took his own life.

And he isn't the only one. According to Haaretz's calculations, since the beginning of the war, around 35 soldiers on active duty have ended their lives – 28 by the end of last year. The military declined to release numbers for this year.

Usually, when defense officials are asked about suicide, they use vague language like "This is a complex case," sometimes throwing in, "There were no warning signs."

But the reservist laid to rest at Kiryat Shaul gave many warning signs, and they were all inscribed in large letters in files of the army and Defense Ministry.

Like so many others, he was called up on October 8, 2023, the day after Hamas' massacre. He was a medic in an armored brigade of reservists. His unit was deployed near Nahariya on the Lebanese border, but then it went down to Gaza, where the soldiers fought mostly around Khan Yunis in the south until their discharge in February 2024.

The reservist's medical records show that he attempted suicide a few times when he was a conscript, but no one ever gave him a psychological examination.

After his discharge from reserve duty, his mental condition deteriorated and he checked into a facility that provides intensive mental care and is an alternative to psychiatric institutionalization. In November he approached the Defense Ministry and was immediately registered with the rehab department as a wounded soldier.

Two months ago, his company was called up for reserve duty again, this time to be on call near the Gaza border. Two days before the call-up, the soldier confirmed that he would be there.

During training he told another soldier that he had been to the psychological facility. "I'm probably the only soldier who knew that, but he seemed so happy and cheerful that I thought he was getting better," a soldier in his company says. "It didn't occur to me that anything could happen."

A few weeks later, on home leave, the soldier called his company commander, reported a deterioration in his condition and asked to be relieved. The commander didn't object; he told him he would be immediately discharged when he reported to the base. But no one thought to connect him with a mental health professional or take his rifle from him.

A few hours later, in his home in north Tel Aviv, the 25-year-old shot himself with his rifle. "He was a sensitive, introverted guy and a talented painter," one soldier wrote about him online. "The illustrations he made during the fighting were probably among the most beautiful ever made inside a tank."

The army sees this case as a "specific failure" and promises that "lessons will be learned," but this case doesn't appear to be an anomaly.

I can cautiously estimate that among the tens of thousands who reported for reserve duty over the last two weeks, hundreds of mentally injured soldiers have turned to us, maybe thousands," a source at the Defense Ministry says.

No one is sure of the exact number – not the military's Personnel Directorate or the Medical Corps' mental health department or the Defense Ministry's rehab department.

Dozens of sources told Haaretz that the army has been calling up not only mentally injured soldiers who are in the process of being recognized as such by the Defense Ministry, but also soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder. Some were recognized years ago, some have already been discharged, and some have a high disability rating at 50 percent or more. Some, however, are eager to go Gaza and help with the war effort.

'Nobody asked'
As with many issues, bureaucracy is the problem, or more accurately, a sometimes Kafkaesque lack of coordination between the Defense Ministry and the army. In fact, military officials say the army doesn't have sound data on mentally injured soldiers being treated by the rehab department, even in cases of severe PTSD.

According to the Defense Ministry, the rehab department treats 78,000 wounded soldiers from all of Israel's wars; some are over 80 years old. A full 26,000 of them are suffering from mental injuries, of whom 11,000 are recognized as suffering from PTSD. Over 17,000 of the department's patients are from the current war, including around 9,000 mentally injured soldiers (and 17,000 until October 7, 2023).

Defense Ministry officials say that in the current war, the army receives files every month on wounded soldiers treated by the rehab department. But the army says it has only received such files once, in March 2024.

It also says that no clear distinction has been made between mentally injured soldiers and other wounded soldiers, or between wounded soldiers who recently filed a request and those registered with the rehab department – or with those recognized as disabled by a medical committee. And there is no focused clinical data on every wounded or injured soldier.

"The list they provided might be useful to National Insurance officials, but not to doctors," a senior mental health official in the military says. "We'll be happy to receive the Defense Ministry's data; they just won't give it to us."

He says the ministry is worried about an invasion of patients' privacy; they may not want their medical data handed over to the army. "There's nothing I can do but try to recruit as many mental health officers as possible, so that if a soldier like this undergoes a crisis and wants to share, there will be a professional to talk to," the mental health official in the military says. "Right now, if they don't share their situation, we have no way of knowing."

Of the disabled soldiers who spoke with Haaretz, none had met with a mental health expert from the army before doing reserve duty in the current war. Most say they were recruited through want ads on social media, posted by commanders desperately needing people.

"I felt I couldn't keep sitting at home doing nothing," says a soldier diagnosed with PTSD after an incident in the 2006 Second Lebanon War. He has been serving for a few weeks now at a West Bank military outpost.

Three other disabled soldiers say they have been called up for combat duty in Gaza. "Nobody asked me about my mental condition, and I didn't want to tell, because I was afraid I'd be disqualified," one says.

A commander of an armored battalion of reservists admits that he and his counterparts in other battalions are turning a blind eye. "People just aren't showing up. They're exhausted and are having trouble at home and at work. So we call up others, including some who aren't 100 percent okay," the commander says.

"Nothing can be done: Israel's security trumps everything, and we're working with what we have. If I notice an extreme case, of course I'll send the soldier to a mental health officer or discharge him. But to be honest, you can't always tell. It's happened that I've missed a soldier in distress, and it ended badly."

According to Prof. Eyal Fruchter, chairman of the National PTSD Council and the military's former mental health chief, among people with PTSD symptoms but not yet the full-fledged disorder, additional exposure to stress could significantly intensify the chances of developing chronic PTSD.

Anyone reading the press releases knows that the army often boasts about returning to the front soldiers who have displayed combat stress symptoms. Fruchter says that sending a soldier back in this condition could preserve "functional continuity" and help prevent the development of chronic PTSD.

But he says there's a difference between this and cases where a soldier comes home displaying PTSD symptoms. In such cases, caution is paramount.

"It's a particularly bad idea to take people who are already at high risk and send them back into battle," Fruchter says. "But it seems that because of the terrible personnel shortage, the system prefers to ignore the risk, which is a cause for grave concern." He says this is doubly true for soldiers who have been diagnosed with chronic PTSD.

The army's data doesn't include soldiers who have taken their own lives after being discharged from active service. According to Haaretz's calculations, since the beginning of the war, 10 discharged soldiers have killed themselves after suffering from mental problems that their families say were caused by their military service.

Some of these soldiers were recognized as mentally injured or mentally disabled before they took their own lives, while others never contacted the rehab department. Four of the men who killed themselves had fought in Gaza; none are included in the military's statistics.

In Mizrahi's case, after a public outcry, the military decided to recognize his meeting with his company commander as a day of reserve duty, so he was recognized as having taken his own life while in service.

Levi-Belz says the military must take urgent steps to limit the phenomenon; at the very least, soldiers should fill out a questionnaire for determining whether they have PTSD symptoms and are eligible for service. Actually, the questionnaire should be filled out by all soldiers called up for duty, Levi-Belz says. After all, according to all experts who spoke for this article, very few soldiers contact the rehab department.

The army, however, has different interests. Proposals like the questionnaire "ran into obstacles from the top brass," an officer in the Personnel Directorate says. "In the end, the army needs a lot of combat soldiers to complete the tasks given it by the government, and officers are afraid that a thorough survey of soldiers' mental condition could open a Pandora's box that will leave the army without personnel.

"As one officer told me, 'We need as many warm bodies as possible, and we'll deal with the consequences later. ... These are harsh remarks, but it's the mood today in the General Staff."

People who come home after months of fighting and experience the onset of PTSD may find it hard to reacclimatize," he says. "Suddenly they're not allowed to get angry and have to speak politely to their partner and children, while on the battlefield everybody speaks the same violent language and their alertness is an advantage. Such people may feel much less out of sorts on reserve duty, where life is clearer to them."

No choice
While most cases reported to Haaretz are of mentally injured reservists who wanted to fight, some have told the army they're no longer able to report for duty – and didn't receive understanding.

Such was the case with Amiel Benaim, 29, of Moshav Elyaim in the north. The day after the massacres, Benaim – who for years had volunteered to find missing persons – went to the site of the Nova music festival, where he saw many bodies of festivalgoers.

The next day Benaim went to Kibbutz Be'eri. "There I saw an even worse scene that I can't talk about," he says.

On October 10 he signed up for reserve duty as a combat driver and spent months in Gaza. He was present at five incidents that resulted in many dead and wounded, and came back emotionally scarred.

"I suffer from sweating, I wet the bed and have fits of rage even against somebody I accidently bump into in the supermarket," he says. "It's just terrible. I'm willing to pay any price to get back the life I once had. From the outside, I seem 100 percent okay, but I'm mentally amputated."

In March 2024, one month after he was discharged, Benaim approached the Defense Ministry about his difficult condition. Unlike many wounded soldiers who have to wait long stretches, he was summoned to a medical committee a few months later and has been awarded a permanent disability rating of 50 percent.

This didn't deter the army from asking him in January to do reserve duty starting in April. Benaim told his liaison officer he was a disabled soldier, but she insisted. "I explained to her, 'I'm barely alive and you want me to report for reserve duty.' And she said, 'I'm not going to argue with you' and said I was required to report for duty 'like any reservist,'" Benaim says.

"She made me feel like I wasn't human, just a number, a puppet on a string to be disposed of as they wish. I was in shock – you want to send a soldier with an injured mind into battle without even having him examined? Do you realize the risk? I could hurt not only myself but others, too."

His call-up was only rescinded after Haaretz intervened, but despite the military's promise to address the issue, Benaim has not yet been permanently discharged.

She said a discharge was impossible. As the reservist puts it, "She gave me the feeling that the only way to be released from reserve duty is to die."

During his first press conference in five months, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday named the implementation of US President Donald Trump’s “revolutionary” plan to relocate Gaza’s civilians as a condition for ending the conflict, the first time he has made such a demand. He called Trump’s plan “brilliant,” and said it had the potential to change the face of the Middle East.

The fledgling Operation Gideon’s Chariots — the IDF’s expanded ground operation in Gaza that began over the weekend— is meant to “complete the war, the work” in the enclave, the premier told reporters and live TV cameras at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem.

Israel has a “very organized” plan to achieve its war aims in Gaza, he insisted, saying its aims are “To defeat Hamas, which carried out the atrocities of October 7; to bring back all of our hostages; and to ensure that Gaza does not present a threat to Israel.”

“Our forces are landing powerful blows that will get stronger against Hamas strongholds that still exist in Gaza,” he explained, promising that by the end of the operation, “all the territory of Gaza will be under Israeli security control, and Hamas will be totally defeated.”

While “ready to end the war,” Netanyahu said he would only agree to do so “under clear conditions that will ensure the safety of Israel: All the hostages come home, Hamas lays down its arms, steps down from power, its leadership is exiled from the Strip… Gaza is totally disarmed; and we carry out the Trump plan. A plan that is so correct and so revolutionary.”

The US and Israel share a determination to ensure that Iran cannot get the bomb and that Hamas is booted out of Gaza, he said. And “we want to ensure that Trump’s plan” for Gaza comes to fruition, he added. “It’s a brilliant plan,” he said, “that truly can bring change not only here… but can change the face of the Middle East. Change once and for all what we have been through from Gaza for decades.”

He also said that if there is a possibility for a “temporary ceasefire” that will return more hostages, he would agree to that, but repeated that this would only be temporary.

PM says Qatar ‘not a friendly country,’ but didn’t fund Oct. 7
Asked about the ongoing Qatargate scandal, Netanyahu stated he “didn’t know anything” about his aides allegedly getting money from Qatar to boost the Gulf nation’s image, and that he “still doesn’t know” what happened.

Netanyahu claimed that he publicly attacked Qatar — one of the main mediators between Israel and Hamas in hostage talks — while others praised them, and that Israel is primarily using them to help get the hostages out.

“Qatar is not a friendly country,” he said, noting that Doha still supports Hamas, and that he is allowing a Knesset bill defining Qatar as a “terror-supporting state” to advance.

“Maybe the time has come to say the things in the clearest way possible, to our American friends as well. We are saying it,” he said, adding that maintaining contact with Qatar on the hostage issue must be included as an exception within the bill.

Netanyahu also claimed money controversially transferred by Qatar to Hamas was given “on the recommendation of the Shin Bet and the Mossad,” though the head of the security agency at the time has said he opposed the funds. The prime minister denied that this money, transferred at his urging, enabled the October 7, 2023, terror onslaught, which marked the deadliest attack in Israel’s history and day for Jews since the Holocaust.

Seeming to downplay the lethal capabilities of Hamas, Netanyahu said members of the terror group “attacked us in flip-flops and with AK-47s and pickup trucks, which cost scraps.” He said no tunnels that Hamas might have built with the money penetrated Israel because he had ordered an underground barrier built. Hamas did not have F-35s or tanks, he also said.

Thousands of Hamas members and other terrorists who breached the border on October 7 were highly trained and heavily armed, reports have shown, and operated within the 24 battalions of Hamas’s Qassem Brigades military wing. They held prior exercises, attacked in coordinated waves, and broke through the border in dozens of locations using anti-tank missiles, encrypted communications, naval commando units, and hang-gliders.

Falsely claims that Kibbutz Ein HaShlosha was not attacked
Netanyahu agreed that the failures of October 7 must be investigated and fully examined —“Everyone will bear the true responsibility. We need an objective commission, unbiased.”

“How did it happen that there was no one next to the fence. How did it happen that there was a directive not to be next to the fence,” he asked. “How did it happen that the Air Force received orders to operate only hours after the attack. How did it happen?”

He claimed there was one kibbutz, Ein HaShlosha, where that alleged directive was not given, “and nothing happened there — the community was not invaded, and the terrorists were killed.”

Members of the Gaza border kibbutz later expressed shock at Netanyahu’s claim that “nothing” happened there on October 7; in fact, four members were murdered. “We were surprised and shocked by the prime minister’s blatant inaccuracy as if ‘nothing happened in Ein Hashlosha.’ This is an outrageous and grave remark that harms the memory of those murdered and the entire community.”

The kibbutz residents demanded a correction and invited Netanyahu to Ein Hashlosha “to meet the community and hear the story of Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha.”

Netanyahu’s office attempted damage control, claiming in a statement later Wednesday that his remarks about Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha were misunderstood, and avoiding admitting Netanyahu misspoke. The statement asserted that what he meant was that the kibbutz not receiving a directive to not act caused the kibbutz’s people to spring into action, adding that the local security squad “fought bravely and prevented the takeover of the kibbutz and a big massacre.”

“There was no intention to say no residents were murdered at all. The prime minister grieves with the four families whose loved ones were murdered on October 7, along with the rest of the families whose loved ones were murdered and hurt in the massacre in all communities.”

The government has not formed any commission of inquiry into the events surrounding October 7, 2023, for 19 months, and opposes a state commission of inquiry, which successive polls show is the preferred option for most Israelis.

Trump’s ‘absolute commitment’
Asked about reports of a growing rift between him and Trump, Netanyahu asserted that Israel’s relations with the United States are positive, and that the US president’s warming relations with Arab states in the Middle East do not worry him.

Netanyahu said he was assured by Trump and US Vice President JD Vance in recent days that America has Israel’s back.

“A few days ago — I think around 10 days ago, maybe a little more — I spoke on the phone with President Trump. And he said to me, literally: ‘Bibi, I want you to know — I have absolute commitment to you. I have absolute commitment to the State of Israel,” said the premier.

He added that “Just a few days ago, I spoke with Vice President Vance. He said to me… ‘Listen, don’t pay attention to all this fake news about this rupture between us… It’s all spin. This isn’t the truth, you know it’s not true, and I’m telling you, from our side, it’s not true’.”

We’re coordinated with the [Trump] administration,” continued Netanyahu, “We speak with each other. We respect their interests, and they respect ours — and they overlap. I won’t tell you they align completely, obviously not, but they align almost completely.”

Netanyahu expressed support for Trump’s objectives of tightening relations with Gulf nations in the Middle East, demonstrated by the president’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates last week, saying his American counterpart’s moves could serve Israel by facilitating additional Abraham Accords normalization agreements.

“I have no objection to the United States deepening its ties in the Arab world. That’s absolutely fine. And I’ll tell you even more — I believe that can actually help expand the Abraham Accords, which I’m very invested in. I’m interested in that.”

Europe ‘will not influence us’
Addressing Jerusalem’s relations with Europe, Netanyahu said that harsh rhetoric and punitive actions, including sanctions, from European nations demanding an end to the war in Gaza “will not influence” Israel’s national security policies.

“European countries will not influence us and they will not cause us to abandon our core objectives — ensuring the security of Israel and the future of Israel,” said Netanyahu in response to a question on how he plans to respond to severe condemnation of Israel’s actions in Gaza by European allies.

In recent days, European nations have called on Israel to halt its expanded military campaign in the Strip and lift restrictions on humanitarian aid for Gazan civilians.

Stressing that Hamas loots aid shipments and sells the supplies at exorbitant prices to fund its military activities, Netanyahu said that Israel developed along with the US a humanitarian aid plan to bypass Hamas members. US Ambassador Mike Huckabee earlier this month claimed it was an American plan, not an Israeli plan.

Netanyahu said the plan has three stages – the entry of “basic food now” into Gaza to prevent a humanitarian crisis; opening aid distribution points in the coming days by private US companies; and creating a “sterile zone” in southern Gaza for the civilian population to shelter in.

“In this zone, which will be totally free of Hamas, residents of Gaza will receive full humanitarian aid,” he explained.

Slams Yair Golan, who threatens to sue him
Addressing former IDF deputy chief of staff and current Democrats party leader Yair Golan’s much-panned accusation on Tuesday that Israel is killing Palestinian children for sport, Netanyahu called the statement “appalling.”

“While our heroic soldiers are risking their lives in the Gaza Strip, in order to protect our country and to bring our hostages back, Yair Golan accuses them of war crimes,” he said, adding that it reminded him of medieval blood libels.

It is Hamas that kills children as a hobby, while Israeli soldiers are doing everything they can to avoid civilian casualties, insisted Netanyahu. “There is no army that is more moral than the IDF in the world.”

Netanyahu said that those who defend Golan and repeat such charges fuel antisemitism and back Golan so as to bring down his government. They are willing to do anything to achieve that goal, he argued, including losing the ongoing war.

In response, Golan said: “I saw a display by a lying, anxious and troubled man who slings mud at everyone and doesn’t take responsibility for anything.

“I have two promises to Netanyahu this evening: I will sue you for defamation for the lies you spread against me, and we will beat you in

Palestinian doctor Alaa al-Najjar has spent her life caring for the Strip’s sick and wounded children as a pediatric specialist at al-Tahrir Hospital in Gaza.

On Friday, she lost nine of her own.

An Israeli airstrike struck her home in Khan Younis, killing nearly her entire family, another unbearable blow in a conflict where grief compounds daily, and where Israel’s declared intent to seize full control of Gaza marches forward amid the rising death toll.

Yahya, 12, Eve, 9, Rival, 5, Sadeen, 3, Rakan, 10, Ruslan, 7, Jibran, 8, Luqman, 2, and Sedar, not yet 1 year old, died in the strike on Najjar’s home, according to hospital officials.

Video provided by Gaza's Civil Defense showed a tiny charred body zipped up inside a bag. Sedar’s remains were never found.

“We couldn’t find any trace of him,” a Civil Defense worker said.

One of Najjar’s children and her husband, also a physician, survived with injuries. Dr. Graeme Groom, a British surgeon working in the hospital, told the BBC on Saturday that he had operated on 11-year-old Adam.

“Our little boy could survive, but we don’t know about his father,” he said.

The Israeli military said its “aircraft struck a number of suspects who were identified operating from a structure adjacent to IDF troops in the area of Khan Younis,” and that it evacuated civilians from the area.

“The claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review,” it said.

The heartbreak encapsulated by one family’s loss underscores a conflict where violence shows no signs of abating, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed last week that the military is “moving toward full control” of the Gaza Strip.

One of Najjar’s children and her husband, also a physician, survived with injuries. Dr. Graeme Groom, a British surgeon working in the hospital, told the BBC on Saturday that he had operated on 11-year-old Adam.

“Our little boy could survive, but we don’t know about his father,” he said.

The Israeli military said its “aircraft struck a number of suspects who were identified operating from a structure adjacent to IDF troops in the area of Khan Younis,” and that it evacuated civilians from the area.

“The claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review,” it said.

The heartbreak encapsulated by one family’s loss underscores a conflict where violence shows no signs of abating, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed last week that the military is “moving toward full control” of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli settlers reportedly raided the Palestinian village of Bruqin in the northern West Bank in the early hours of Sunday morning in the second such incident in three days.

Bruqin has been targeted several times by settlers since earlier this month, when one of its residents carried out a shooting terror attack that killed Israeli Tzeela Gez as she headed to the hospital to give birth.

The Israel Defense Forces initially said there were no injuries or damage in what it depicted as a clash that developed between locals and Israelis in the Palestinian village, with both sides throwing stones at each other

The Al Arabiya news outlet reported that several homes and vehicles were torched by settlers.

The Palestinian Wafa news agency reported that several homes were “targeted,” including at least one that was set alight. It did not report any injuries.

Residents told Al Arabiya that the IDF arrived on the scene as settlers were attacking, but did not intervene or carry out any arrests.

In response to a query, the IDF said in a statement that “violent friction” developed between Palestinians and Israeli citizens close to Bruqin, during which both sides pelted each other with stones.

The military said that as soon as it received a report of the clash, it sent forces to disperse the crowds and that there were no injuries or damage.

Footage shared on social media purportedly from the scene appeared to show smoke and flames coming from at least one building.

Eight Palestinians were reportedly wounded in a similar raid of Bruqin on Thursday.

Then, too, no arrests were made by authorities.

Palestinian media reported that five homes and five vehicles were set ablaze during that incident.

Footage showed several vehicles completely burned and homes partially set on fire.

Security sources told reporters that some 40 settlers took part in last week’s attack; the sources denied Palestinian reports that they also burned homes.

The settler assaults appeared to be carried out in retaliation for the deadly shooting of Gez earlier this month.

In the attack on May 14, near Bruqin and the West Bank settlement of Bruchin, a Palestinian terrorist opened fire from the side of a road, killing Gez, who was heading to the hospital to give birth, and wounding her husband.

The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday confirmed it killed Naael Samarah, who carried out the deadly attack.

Israeli authorities rarely arrest Jewish perpetrators in such attacks. Rights groups lament that convictions are even more unusual and that the vast majority of charges in these types of attacks are dropped.

Law enforcement and military responses to settler violence have faced mounting scrutiny amid concerns that members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline right-wing cabinet are unwilling to tackle extremist attacks on Palestinians. Police officials have pushed back against the criticism.

Thousands gathered in cities across the country Saturday night for anti-government rallies and hostage demonstrations, as relatives of captives pleaded with the government to agree to a deal that would see the Hamas terror group release them as part of a ceasefire in Gaza.

The main rally that was focused on opposition to the government took place at Tel Aviv’s Habima Square, where demonstrators gathered to demand an end to the war and new elections in Israel, while decrying the burden of the war on reservists as ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students continue to largely evade military recruitment.

Meanwhile, with negotiations in Qatar again seeming to have stalled, protesters demanding a hostage deal gathered at nearby Hostages Square outside the Tel Aviv Museum, where a former captive told the crowd that her greatest terror in captivity was Israeli air\strikes, adding that she feared for the lives of the remaining hostages held in Gaza.

Naama Levy, one of five IDF female surveillance soldiers released in the recent ceasefire-hostage deal in January, told the crowd of some 1,500 people: “They come by surprise.”

“First you hear a whistle, pray it doesn’t fall on you, and then — the booms, a noise loud enough to paralyze you. The earth shakes.”

“I was convinced every single time that I was finished, and it’s also what put me in the greatest danger: one of the bombardments collapsed part of the house I was in,” she said. “The wall I was leaning on didn’t collapse, and that’s what saved me.”

She added: “That was my reality, and now it’s their reality. At this very moment, there are hostages who hear those same whistles and booms, shaking with fear. They have nowhere to run, they can only pray and cling to the wall while feeling a horrible powerlessness.”

She said that in her first few weeks in captivity, she was held alone, “just me and my captors, constantly on the run.”

“There were entire days without food and little water. One day, I had nothing left, not even water. Fortunately, it started raining. My captors put a pot outside the house where I was held, and the rain filled it,” she said. “I drank that rain water, which was enough for a pot of rice. That’s what kept me going.”

Levy added that in captivity, she didn’t believe anyone in Israel could be aware of what the hostages were experiencing and still be willing to keep them in Gaza.

“But then the first hostages came back [to Israel], and they said what was happening there [in Gaza],” she said. “They told the truth. That truth wasn’t enough.”

Levy said the protests for the hostages gave her great solace in captivity.

“During that terrible and unimaginable time, they told us that we had been forgotten — but I didn’t believe it. I knew people were fighting for me, because on Saturday nights, when I was allowed to watch television — I saw you, in this square. There, in captivity, I saw thousands standing here wrapped in flags, shouting, singing, holding pictures of the hostages, including mine. You made me feel that I was not forgotten.”

During that terrible and unimaginable time, they told us that we had been forgotten — but I didn’t believe it. I knew people were fighting for me, because on Saturday nights, when I was allowed to watch television — I saw you, in this square. There, in captivity, I saw thousands standing here wrapped in flags, shouting, singing, holding pictures of the hostages, including mine. You made me feel that I was not forgotten.”

Before the rallies, a group of hostages’ families highly critical of the government held their weekly press conference in Tel Aviv, blasting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for continuing the war, and expressing concern over his plan to appoint a Shin Bet chief who has reportedly expressed opposition to a hostage deal.

Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is held hostage in Gaza, said of Netanyahu: “An eternal, politically motivated war is preferable [to him] over the return of civilians kidnapped on his watch.

“He prefers to flatten Gaza indefinitely, even at the price of 58 Ron Arads,” she said, referring to an Israeli pilot, presumed dead, who went missing in action in 1986 and whose whereabouts remain unknown nearly 40 years later.

Yehuda Cohen, whose son Nimrod is held in Gaza, accused Netanyahu of evading responsibility. “How is it that after 600 days, he proposes a selective deal?” He said, in reference to a potential agreement that would see only some of the hostages freed. “This is a death sentence for whoever is left behind. I call upon President Trump — only you can stop this disaster and return everyone home.”

At an anti-government rally on Begin Road in Tel Aviv, protesters marched by IDF headquarters, banging drums, lighting flares and chanting, “Why are they still in Gaza?”

Referring to Netanyahu’s controversial claim this week that Hamas used “flip-flops and AK-47s” in the onslaught of October 7, 2023, Cohen said, incredulously, that the premier seemed to think his son Nimrod’s tank “was taken over with flip-flops.”

Zangauker said that instead of reaching a ceasefire-hostage deal, the government “will continue sending our troops to the front, to create settlements on the backs of our hostages. They’ll continue sabotaging the country and shirking responsibility.

“In order to reach a deal that will release all the hostages, we have to kick out this government,” she said.

The head of a new U.S. and Israel-backed organization set to distribute aid in Gaza has quit, saying it would be impossible to do the job without compromising basic humanitarian principles.

Jake Wood, executive director of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, said he was “proud of the work” he had so far overseeing the project.

However, it was impossible to implement the plan while also adhering to the “humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence,” he said in a statement published by Reuters.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, said it would launch operations Monday despite the resignation of Wood, a U.S. military veteran and co-founder of the nonprofit Team Rubicon, described on its website as a "veteran-led humanitarian organization that serves global communities before, during, and after disasters and crises."

Wood and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for more information.

Israel has promoted plans for an aid distribution overhaul in the shattered Palestinian enclave despite widespread condemnation from humanitarian groups already working there, including the United Nations. They have warned that the initiative risks stripping the humanitarian process of its independence, deepening Israel’s control over Gaza and risking the future weaponization of aid.

In a separate statement, GHF’s board said it was “disappointed” by Wood’s departure, but would push forward with its plan and begin distributing aid in Gaza starting Monday.

“Our trucks are loaded and ready to go,” it added, according to Reuters.

Wood's resignation came as Israel continues to allow only a trickle of much-needed aid into Gaza while also pressing on with its latest military offensive, which has killed hundreds, including children, in the span of weeks.

Israeli-backed plan
Questions have swirled around the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation since its launch.

Nate Mook, the former CEO of World Central Kitchen who had previously been reported as a member of the board, told NBC News he had never been involved with the initiative.

Netanyahu said last week that under the plan, aid will be delivered to Palestinian civilians in designated "safe zones," with already displaced families expected to eventually move once again to southern Gaza "for their own safety."

Aid groups have warned that in addition to undermining a long-held humanitarian framework in the enclave, that the plan will once again force widespread displacement in Gaza, while also concentrating distribution in areas that may not be accessible to everyone. Civilians, already exhausted and hungry after 18 months of war, displacement and hunger, who do not move south would be at greater risk under Israel's military assault, the groups warn.

Netanyahu has said the effort was aimed at allowing civilians to receive humanitarian aid "without Hamas interference," repeating the assertion that the militant group was diverting aid. Humanitarian groups operating in Gaza have denied that the militant group was siphoning off supplies.

Joseph Belliveau, executive director of MedGlobal, an Illinois-based humanitarian nonprofit providing medical aid in Gaza, accused Israel of using a "non-existent problem" to justify its decision to overhaul aid distribution in Gaza in what he described as a bid to gain further control over the enclave.

The aid overhaul comes after Israel banned the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, or UNRWA, from operating in Gaza, alleging that Hamas members had infiltrated the agency and that a number of staff members had taken part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.

Scarce aid
Humanitarian groups have condemned Israel for trickling only a small amount of aid into Gaza in the week since lifting its blockade.

As of early Monday, just under 500 trucks carrying aid and goods had entered the enclave in the week since Israel announced May 18 that it was lifting its blockade, according to a tally of data shared by COGAT.

That's roughly the same number of trucks that entered Gaza daily before the war began, according to aid groups.

Overnight, Hamas and U.S. officials reached a verbal “understanding” on the framework of a Gaza ceasefire, sources involved with the negotiations told Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill.

Drop Site has been shown the full text of the document outlining the terms to which Hamas agreed. Some of these details have also been confirmed by sources interviewed by Al Jazeera and Al-Mayadeen. Scahill reports that the understanding was communicated to Hamas through Palestinian-American intermediary Bishara Bahbah in coordination with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff.

Hamas accepted the terms in the document and was told the U.S. believed the framework could work—pending Israeli approval. A senior source from Hamas told Scahill: "We have accepted the Witkoff proposal, 60 day temporary cease fire for releasing 10 living Israeli prisoners (5 at the beginning and 5 [at the end]), President Trump will personally announce the agreement."

But before the deal could advance, Israeli officials rushed to the media to kill it. Soon after, Witkoff publicly accused Hamas of misrepresenting the proposal—directly contradicting what sources told Drop Site had been agreed to in private discussions.

The negotiations are ongoing.

What Hamas Believed It Had Secured
The 13-point document shown to Drop Site, based on Hamas’s direct talks with the U.S. through intermediary Bishara Bahbah, included the following:

A 70-day ceasefire.
The release of 10 living Israeli captives in two batches, half on the first day and the other on the last day. Hamas would also release the bodies of 16 deceased captives. Hamas said it needed a two-week window to locate all burial sites.

A personal, public guarantee from Trump, committing to the ceasefire and the pull back of Israeli forces to their March 2 positions.

The resumption of unrestricted aid, including food, fuel, medicine, housing materials and construction equipment.

A cessation of all Israeli military operations, including surveillance activities. A cessation of all armed activities by Palestinian resistance groups.

Witkoff would personally, as a guarantor, sign a ceasefire deal in Doha and shake hands with Hamas’s lead negotiator, Dr. Khalil Al-Hayya.

Witkoff would head the U.S. delegation, which would also include Adam Boehler and Bahbah.
Trump would publicly thank all parties, including Hamas, reaffirming his commitment to the ceasefire and a lasting resolution between Israel and Palestine.

Upon signing of the ceasefire, an independent, technocratic committee of Palestinians would immediately take charge of Gaza’s governance, and reconstruction efforts would commence.

The U.S. and regional mediators would guarantee continued ceasefire negotiations and aid entry after 70 days, until a permanent ceasefire is reached.

As long as negotiations continue, the U.S. would remain committed to a ceasefire and facilitating aid entry until a permanent peace agreement is reached.


Hamas initially proposed a 90-day ceasefire, then said it would accept a 70-day version to align with the U.S. position. Israel wanted a shorter window. Hamas subsequently told Scahill it had agreed to an intial 60 day truce.

Sources told Drop Site that Qatar, particularly in the wake of Edan Alexander’s release, applied pressure on Trump to secure this agreement. As Drop Site previously reported, Witkoff promised Hamas that aid would resume to Gaza two days after Alexander’s release and Trump would call for a ceasefire and negotiations to end the war. Neither of those happened.

Trump, according to sources, has been telling regional leaders that he had given Israel two months to accomplish its objectives after Israel abandoned the January ceasefire deal, and now is the time to bring the war to an end.

U.S. Gives Proposal to Israel—Israel Publicly Kills It
According to Ynet and the Jerusalem Post, the proposal was delivered to Israel late Sunday by U.S. officials. "The eagerness with which it was killed in Israel indicated a deep fear that Washington would accept it and even try to impose it," YNet reported. Israeli officials reacted with alarm:

➤ One Israeli official told Ynet: “Accepting it is in effect surrender to Hamas.”

➤ Another claimed: “We don’t know what the Americans will say.”

The draft—formulated by Bahbah in direct talks with Hamas—was immediately declared unacceptable by Israel. The rejection came before any public U.S. comment.

U.S. Reversal: Witkoff Blames Hamas
Shortly after Israeli officials told local media they had rejected the deal, Witkoff told Axios’s Barak Ravid, “What I have seen from Hamas is disappointing and completely unacceptable.”

This contradicted what Hamas had been led to believe during talks with U.S. mediators. According to Scahill, Hamas was told the proposal met U.S. requirements and that the next step was for Witkoff and others to work on securing Israeli approval. Witkoff’s statement gave Israel diplomatic cover to walk away.

Channel 12 reported that during discussions, Hamas believed it had secured American guarantees for a permanent end to the war. But Israeli officials now insist there was no such commitment.

According to the outlet: “Israel insists that the Trump administration stands by them on this matter, and that the American commitment is only to the actual conduct of negotiations to end the war—with no guarantees of results.” This directly Marchers chant ‘death to Arabs,’ skirmish with shopkeepers and cops at Jerusalem Day paradecontradicts what Hamas understood from U.S. intermediaries.

Trump is expected to personally guarantee any final deal, including humanitarian aid and a troop withdrawal, according to Al Jazeera. There is no doubt that the only factor that matters is whether Trump will force a ceasefire on Israel. As history has shown, Netanyahu will do everything in his power to sabotage an agreement. Trump told reporters last night: “We want to see if we can stop this whole situation as soon as possible.” But so far, his envoy is standing with Israel.

Tens of thousands of religious Zionist revelers thronged the alleyways of Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday, chanting anti-Arab refrains as they paraded to the Western Wall to celebrate Jerusalem Day.

Many celebrants could be heard chanting “death to Arabs” and singing “may your village burn” while carousing about Jerusalem to mark the city’s reunification in wake of Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Before the annual Flag March kicked off in the afternoon, many young marchers had already begun roving around the Old City, skirmishing with Palestinian shopkeepers and police officers.

Extremist Jewish youths attending the Flag March have been known to harass and beat Palestinians during the procession, especially as it enters the Old City through the Muslim Quarter’s Damascus Gate.

Israel Police chief Danny Levy said in the evening that law enforcement made no arrests, but detained several people, without specifying how many. Last year police made 18 arrests.

The Times of Israel witnessed several people who were violently detained over the course of the morning.

The Palestinians who opened their shops at all on Monday closed up by early afternoon — most at around 2 p.m. — in anticipation of the nationalist parade.

Ahead of the march, a group of right-wing activists gathered outside Damascus Gate to unveil a large banner reading: “Without a Nakba, there is no victory!”

The group’s other banner urged Israel to take over Gaza just like East Jerusalem after it was captured from Jordan in the Six Day War.

Revelers were to march under the slogan “from victory to victory,” march organizer Meir Indor told The Times of Israel on Sunday, connecting Israel’s 1967 triumph to the ongoing offensive in Gaza.

’Our enemies deserve only a bullet to the head’
Launching the Flag Parade that afternoon, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir addressed a large crowd of celebrants, mostly yeshiva students from across the country, outside the Great Synagogue of Jerusalem.

Enthused teenagers close to the stage reached out to the minister while shouting his name, handing him flags and stickers to hold as he danced with Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf, a member of his ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party.


He came out against the recent government decision to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. “I say to the prime minister, dear prime minister, we must not give them humanitarian aid, we must not give them fuel… our enemies deserve only a bullet to the head!”

As revelers began to chant “Death to Arabs,” Ben Gvir shifted course, chanting instead, “Death to terrorists,” with the crowd following his lead.

Ben Gvir told the celebrants: “Guys, I want to say something — I don’t hate Arabs, but I hate terrorists, and I want a death penalty for terrorists, and God willing, we must win.”

Earlier in the day, Ben Gvir visited the Temple Mount and declared that Jewish prayer, including full prostration, was allowed at the holy site, a move that would upend a delicate status quo. The Prime Minister’s Office, however, said there was no change to existing norms.

As the Flag March reached its conclusion at the Western Wall, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip before the large crowd.

“Are we afraid of the word ‘occupation?’” the far-right minister asked the crowd, which responded with a chorus of “no.”

“Are we settling the Land of Israel? Are we liberating Gaza?” he shouted, to cheers of approval from among the tens of thousands gathered at the holy site. “We are triumphing over the enemy!”

’Fringes of the fringes’
Police chief Levy arrived to Damascus Gate as masses were making their way into the Old City’s Muslim Quarter that evening.

The top cop told the Kan public broadcaster that “on the fringes of the fringes, there are a handful of people who try to harm the joy and ceremoniousness” of the parade, but that “99% is passing quietly.”

When asked about the anti-Arab refrains and songs heard from marchers, he told i24News that he did not hear any racist songs. “Maybe I didn’t hear them because I’m an artilleryman,” he said jokingly.

Two of the clashes between right-wing Jewish youth and Palestinians involved pepper spray, police said Monday.

Near Damascus Gate in the morning, a Palestinian youth pepper-sprayed a crowd of Jewish revelers during a scuffle. According to eyewitnesses, police detained the Palestinian.

A policeman was also seen dragging away a religious teenager towards the exit from the Old City in the incident’s aftermath.

The teenage masses soon broke out into chanting “death to Arabs.” Some shoved an elderly Palestinian man as he tried to make his way through the crowd.

One of the celebrants, an adolescent, attempted to prevent the reporter from filming the scene.

Later, a Palestinian man was pepper-sprayed by a group of Jewish marchers outside Herod’s Gate, according to local Arabic media.

Revelers also made their way to the Christian Quarter. It was there that police detained a Palestinian man after he attempted to chase after a few dozen religious Zionist youth with his belt in hand, which happened after they attacked another shopkeeper in his vicinity.

The Palestinian man, who appeared to be drunk, repeatedly fell to the ground as he tried to resist being detained, as police officers roughed him up.

Also on the scene were purple-vested volunteers with the left-wing Standing Together movement, who tried to restrain the man from chasing the youth.

They were operating as part of a self-styled “humanitarian guard” with the aim of “escorting and protecting Palestinian residents and businesses from attacks by participants in the Flag March.

Right-wing Jewish youth scuffled with the left-wing activists as well, deriding them as “traitors”

Thousands of hungry Palestinians flooded a controversial new aid distribution center in Gaza on Tuesday and made off with boxes of food while Israeli soldiers fired live rounds in the air to disperse the crowds.

It was a violent debut for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) facility near the city of Rafah, the first of four food distribution sites set up by the U.S.-backed organization and the Israeli military to control the flow of humanitarian aid into the crowded Palestinian territory.

The Hamas-run government in Gaza accuses the GHF of being "affiliated with the Israeli occupation administration itself."

Desperate for food after a three-month blockade of Gaza by the Israelis reduced aid shipments to a trickle, on Tuesday the throng could be seen in live video storming the barricades and removing boxes of aid while GHF workers looked on.

The GHF released a statement confirming the Gazans took some of the aid from the site they refer to as SDS-1.

"The needs on the ground are great," the statement said. "At one moment in the late afternoon, the volume of people at the SDS was such that the GHF team fell back to allow a small number of Gazans to take aid safely and dissipate. This was done in accordance with GHF protocol to avoid casualties."

Order was restored by late afternoon, the group said, adding it had distributed about 8,000 food boxes, equivalent to about 462,000 meals, to a crowd of Palestinians that included many women and children, some of whom arrived on donkey carts.

Later, the aid organization and the Israelis, as well as the U.S. State Department, accused Hamas of trying to block civilians from reaching the aid distribution center.

"The fact of the matter is, Hamas has been opposed to this dynamic," State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said at a briefing. "They have attempted to stop the aid movement through Gaza to these distribution centers. They have failed, but they certainly try."

The Hamas-run Government Media Office in Gaza blamed the situation on "mismanagement" by the GHF.

"This resulted in thousands of hungry people rushing out under the pressure of the siege and hunger, then storming the distribution centers and seizing food, interspersed with gunfire from the Israeli occupation," the media office said.

The GHF was set up to take control of food distribution to Gaza away from aid groups led by the United Nations, which have been struggling to keep residents supplied with meals, fuel, medicine and other items since the Israeli war with Hamas erupted in October 2023.

The Israelis have argued that the new system is needed because Hamas has been stealing supplies and starving their own people.

But critics at the U.N. and other relief organizations say Israelis are using aid to lure Palestinians from their homes in northern Gaza to the south so they can solidify their control over the territory.

"The so-called 'safe distribution sites' are nothing more than 'racist isolation ghettos' established under the supervision of the occupation, in exposed and isolated military areas," according to the Hama-run media office.

Before Tuesday's incident, legal advocacy groups like the Switzerland-based TRIAL International had denounced GHF and pointed to the difficulties in distributing aid, given questions over its impartiality and independence.

“If your organization is being used by the occupying powers it is likely that you won’t be able to carry out your task in respect to those principles,” Philip Grant, TRIAL International’s executive director told NBC News on Monday.

“The fact that the GHF will continue its work is highly problematic if it’s done in a way that is not consistent with international principles of the Geneva Conventions,” he added.

On Monday, the GHF's chief, Jake Wood, gave critics of his organization's efforts more ammunition by suddenly resigning and claiming that it would be impossible to do the job without compromising "humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence."

COGAT, the Israeli military’s liaison with Palestinians and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, was mum on Wood's exit.

Israeli fighter jets bombed the Houthi-controlled Sanaa International Airport in Yemen on Wednesday, in response to the Iran-backed group’s near-daily ballistic missile attacks on Israel.

Since the Israel Defense Force’s last strike on Yemen, on May 16, the Houthis launched at least seven missiles and several drones at Israel, the latest of them on Tuesday morning.

Israeli Air Force fighter jets, refuelers, and spy planes participated in Wednesday’s operation.